Well, maybe you can ask Jeremy Black,

"Once again, the Neo-Assyrian rituals concerning the placing of magical figurines, for example,refer to types of creature which can easily be identified even though the
figurines of these particular creatures were never inscribed. An example is
the Sages (apkallû) `with the faces of birds, and wings, carrying in their right
hands a "purifier" (mullilu) and in their left a bucket (banduddû)',"

and

"bucket and cone
In Neo-Assyrian art, objects resembling a pine
cone and a bucket (or occasionally a bucket
alone) are held as attributes by a number of
different genies, often in association with the
stylised tree; the 'cone' is held up in the right
hand, the bucket held down in the left. Only
very rarely are these objects held by figures
which might be interpreted as entirely human;
almost always they are held by genies or
human-animal hybrids (see demons and
monsters). As well as in front of the stylised
tree, the bucket and cone are seen held before
floral decorative elements, guardian supernatural
figures, the king or his attendants, or
open doorways. The cone has been interpreted
as a fir cone (Pinus brutia), as the male flower of
the date palm or as a clay object in imitation of
such. The bucket has been thought to have
been of metal or wicker, and to have contained
either water or pollen (see stylised tree and its
`rituals'). Written sources on the matter are
few, but it seems clear that the bucket and cone
were associated with purification, for they are
known respectively as banduddû (bucket) and,
significantly, mullitu (purifier), and figurines 11
of genies holding these attributes were among
the types placed within buildings for protection
from malevolent demons and disease (

Gods Demons, symbols of ancient Mesopotamia